


Little brother

by Servena



Category: Naruto
Genre: Fear of Death, Forgiveness, Gen, Late at Night, Sibling Bonding, Siblings, post Episode 135
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2018-02-22
Packaged: 2019-03-22 15:52:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13767432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Servena/pseuds/Servena
Summary: There is no sound to wake her, of that she is sure afterwards.





	Little brother

There is no sound to wake her, of that she is sure afterwards. No squeaking of the door, no shuffling of naked feet on the floor, no rustling of clothes.

They are shinobi after all. What good would they be if they couldn’t even enter a room without making a sound?

She wakes up anyway. Maybe it’s the shadow that suddenly blocks out the moonlight falling through her window and onto her bed. Maybe it’s the smell, as if the desert himself had spilled over into her bedroom.

Or maybe it’s another, more primal instinct deep inside her that tells her that she is no longer alone, that somebody is standing over her, watching her.

Her fingers close around the kunai under her pillow. There’s no such thing as paranoia when you’re one of the best warriors your village has to offer – hell, your whole country has to offer – even if you’re at home in your own bed. She thinks longingly of her fan leaning against a wall only a few feet away. It feels more like miles away. But she can make it, if she is fast.

Only then does she open her eyes.

And she freezes.

The room is too dark to make out more than shapes at first, yet her mind fills in the blanks for her. She can see that the person standing over her isn’t very tall. She knows that his hear is of a bloody red and the eyes that are watching her are a pale green color.

She also knows that he’s the last person she wants in her bedroom at night.

She lets out the breath she’s been holding slowly. “Gaara”, she says. Her hand lets go of the kunai. Better not to agitate him. And if he really wants to kill her, it will be useless anyway. She has no illusions about this: She won’t stand a single chance against him.

He cocks his head slightly, and the thought cuts through her that he knows, he knows of the kunai, he knows what she’s thinking, he knows everything.

She hasn’t a single idea about what he could want from her, at this time of day or maybe ever.  He’s never wanted anything from her. Maybe he’s finally grown tired of her.

She forces herself to smile, to appear at ease. “Gaara, what are you doing here? Did something happen?”

“I’m sorry.”

The words pass through her and leave her mind empty.

“What?” she manages to say after a moment.

“I’m sorry”, he repeats in the same low, even voice.

“For what?” she asks, although she can think of a hundred, a thousand things, none of which he would ever apologize for.

He furrows his brows at the question, and the expression that passes over his face is almost human, almost like confusion. Ever since they came back from the leaf village, he’s been different, she could tell. The fight against Naruto had changed him, _losing_ to Naruto had changed him, yet in what capacity and to what end she didn’t know, and was afraid of finding out.

Apparently she was about to find out.

“For scaring you”, he finally says.

And then he angles his face into the moonlight and she can make out the tentative way he looks at her, with an expression almost close to worry at his older sister’s reaction.

She has never thought of him as her little brother, not really, he was always just Gaara to her. But maybe he can be. Maybe she wants him to be. And maybe, just maybe, he wants this as well.

“It’s alright”, she says softly. And then, after a moment of thought, she adds: “I forgive you.”

And she does.


End file.
